How did the yellow stains end up on your clothing? You don’t remember it being there before. More than likely they were caused by oxidation.

Here is a scenario: You are out to dinner and a bit of white wine spills on your shirt. You dab it with some sparkling water and hang it up to dry at the end of the evening. The next day the shirt looks great. Fast forward 6 months and you go to put the shirt back on and now it has yellow stains on it.

Over the 6 months the white wine that remained in the fibers of the shirt oxidized (turned yellow). Think of how an apple that is sliced and left on the counter turns brown, this is oxidation.

Depending on what caused the stain and the fibers of the garment, oxidation can appear from pale yellow to dark brown. The darker the stain most likely the longer the garment has been oxidizing.

Now you may be asking, can these stains be removed?

These are difficult stains to remove, even for Courtesy Cleaners. Our spotting technicians have developed techniques for this type of stain removal. Depending on the age of the stain and the type of fabric, we can, at times, remove all traces of the stain. For severe cases, and/or fragile fabrics, stain removal may not be possible.

To prevent yellow stains from appearing on your clothing it is best to bring your garments to Courtesy Cleaners prior to putting them away for the season.